Candace’s Try “Jabugo”
· Phoenix Home & Garden’s Garden Tour
April 20
o The pages of PHOENIX’s sister publication come to life as patrons enjoy exclusive access to a curated selection of the Valley’s most enchanting home gardens during this annual self-guided tour. Attendees will also have the unique opportunity to mingle with Phoenix Home & Garden’s editorial staff as well as architects and designers featured in the magazine. VIP, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; GA, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. $85-$125, Various Valley locations, phgmag.com
· Pray Day 6 of the Novena for our Pope and Bishops
· Tuesday: Litany of St. Michael the Archangel
- Spirit Hour: Sazerac in honor of St. Joseph
· Total Consecration to St. Joseph Day 32
· Bucket List trip: Macao
· Soup
Introduction to the Book of Ester[1]
How do you deal with
someone's insidious plot to murder you and everybody like you?
The Book of Esther
provides one possible answer to that question, tough cookie though it is.
Today, that query may not loom quite as large in America, but it definitely does in many other
places throughout the world (the Middle East, Burma, the Congo—and about a
dozen or more other places). It happened to loom really large in the ancient
Middle East too. In Esther's case, though, no one seems to know if there really
was a wicked counselor named Haman who attempted to manipulate the emperor
(probably Xerxes I, though here he's called "Ahasuerus") into having
all the Jews in the Persian Empire murdered during the fifth century BCE.
Nevertheless, you don't have to look too deeply into Jewish history to find
highly similar attempts at genocide and persecution against the Jews. The story
(which was probably written during the third or fourth Century BCE) may have
helped people who were living under later rulers and needed to reckon with
threats from above (regardless of how historically accurate the story is—or isn't).
Good Girl, Mad World
Esther is one of the first
in a long line of stories about how a good and clever woman helps a powerful,
evil, and monstrous (or maybe just confused) villain switch towards making the
right decisions (in this case, it's King Ahasuerus). In a way, it's a little
like Beauty and the Beast—except
the Beast never sat around tacitly supporting a genocide, Belle never sought
vengeance against the people who were trying to kill her, and Lumiere never
walked around weeping and wearing sackcloth. But despite all that, Esther's a
good example of this type of story. To give a non-Disney version, you could
think of The Arabian Nights,
where the heroine gets her husband to stop murdering his wives every night by
telling him a series of entertaining tales (come to think of it, actually that is
a Disney example, because Aladdin's
part of The Arabian Nights).
It's also a bit of an unusual fit. It isn't one of the major books of the
Tanakh or the prophets or anything. It's wedged in with the
"Writings," next to a miscellany of texts, like The Book of Daniel
and The Song of Songs. It's also particularly odd because it doesn't really
mention God, doesn't really fit into that whole spiritual narrative which
occupies the Torah and the Prophets. It's a suspense and adventure story on the
one hand, but it's also a more serious tale about how the Jewish people manage
to preserve themselves and their culture when faced with a threat from hostile
authorities. Additionally, one of Esther's greatest contributions to
culture—the holiday of Purim—is a time for fun and merriment (and also an
opportunity to look for spiritual meanings hidden within the tale).
Why Should I Care?
The Book of Esther has a
James Bond-ish, ticking-time-bomb plot. It's also heavy on action, drama, and Game of Thrones-style intrigue,
while being notably lacking in legal codes, commandments, theology—all that
kind of thing. This is one book of the Bible you could easily read while
marinating in a bubble bath, without feeling particularly sacrilegious. The
book is compact and smooth—a straightforward, streamlined example of an ancient
Hebrew short story. We're not suggesting that whoever wrote the book of Esther
was exactly the Alice
Munro of his or
her time, but the author was indeed another master storyteller. A closer
comparison would be a story that's a classic, but more focused on action than
on character. Maybe F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" would work as an example of the
style (if not of the substance).
Darker Dimensions
But Esther is more than an
entertaining yarn. To be sure, it is more of a "tale" than
an epic investigation into the relationship between God and humanity. (In fact,
considering that it doesn't really mention God, it might be the Bible's most
secular book.) Overall, though, it's a story about how a pair of scrappy
underdogs—Esther and Mordecai—face seemingly insurmountable odds and end up
putting it all together in the end. The author suggests that, while living in
exile the Jewish people can—with tough work and intelligence—secure a decent
place for themselves within the kingdoms ruled by Gentile conquerors. (So,
maybe it's more like The Little
Giants or The Mighty
Ducks than all that high-art literary Munro and Fitzgerald stuff.)
Yet, there are darker dimensions to the story, going beyond the basic theme of
preventing a genocide. Esther, Mordecai, and their allies seek vengeance
against the supporters of the evil counselor Haman, racking up a considerable
death toll, for one thing. As well, the king Ahasuerus is a bit of a cipher.
You can't really figure out what the dude's psychology is, or what he's
"on about" (to borrow a U.K.-ism). So, that's all disquieting food
for thought. But despite these violent and confusing undertones and the
somewhat confusing, momentary disappearance of God from the Biblical storyline,
the reader will undoubtedly be moved to repeat an immortal line from The Royal Tennenbaum’s:
"Go, Mordecai!"
MARCH 18 Tuesday in the Second Week of Lent
Ester, Chapter 1, Verse 8
The whole nation of the just was
shaken with FEAR at the evils to come
upon them, and they expected to perish.
Sounds like 2019 to me, Afterall we according to AOC
she stated we only have 12 years left before the world dies from pollution-so
let’s party!
Party Like It's Roughly
500 BCE[2]
- The
first chapter starts off by describing the setting: this all went down in
the Persian capital of Susa, where King Ahasuerus was ruling over an
empire that extended from India to Ethiopia.
- Three
years into his reign, Ahasuerus throws a huge banquet, showing off his
wealth to all of the different governors and officials in his kingdom.
It's a massive party that goes on for one hundred and eighty days.
- Then,
he gives another banquet for all the people living in his citadel—both the
important people and the unimportant. It lasts for seven days. All of the
kings' luxurious couches and curtains are on show, and he amply provides
wine for his guests in golden goblets.
- The
queen, Vashti, also provides a separate banquet for all the women in the
kingdom.
- On
the seventh day, King Ahasuerus orders the queen to come so that he can
show her beauty off to all the people in the kingdom, sending eunuchs to
tell her.
- But
the queen refuses to come. Uh-oh.
Sounds
like a Case for Judge Judy
- King
Ahasuerus goes into a rage and asks his sages what the law says about
this.
- The
sages say that the queen has not only wronged the king but all the people
in the kingdom as well, since she's setting a disobedient example for all
the wives. They tell him he needs to dismiss the queen.
- So,
the king divorces Vashti, strips her of her title, and orders her never to
come before him again.
- He
also writes letters to each of his provinces telling everyone that men
should be the masters of their houses. (Nice touch, fella.)
As a faithful catholic in the modern world, you may feel shaken with fear at the evils the new world order has taken, and you may expect to perish yourself but know that we can trust in Divine Mercy.
John Paul
II Entrusted the World to Divine Mercy[1]
On
Aug. 17, 2002, twenty years ago today, Pope John Paul II entrusted the world to
Divine Mercy as he consecrated the International Shrine of The Divine Mercy in
Lagiewniki, Poland.
Standing
before the image of Divine Mercy, the Pope said, “I wish solemnly to entrust
the world to Divine Mercy. I do so with the burning desire that the message of
God’s merciful love, proclaimed here through Saint Faustina, may be made known
to all the peoples of the earth and fill their hearts with hope.”
He
finished his homily with this prayer:
God, merciful
Father, in your Son, Jesus Christ, you have revealed your love and poured it
out upon us in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, we entrust to you today the
destiny of the world and of every man and woman. Bend down to us sinners, heal
our weakness, conquer all evil, and grant that all the peoples of the earth may
experience your mercy. In You, the Triune God, may they ever find the source of
hope. Eternal Father, by the Passion and Resurrection of your Son, have mercy
on us and upon the whole world!
The
consecration and entrustment of the world to Divine Mercy represented the
fulfillment of a mission for Maria Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938). Faustina, a
poor, young Polish nun experienced visions of Jesus in which he asked her to
make his message of infinite love and mercy known to the world. At the request
of her spiritual director, she made a record of the visions in her diary.
In
his visitations, Jesus asked her to have a painting made portraying him as he
appeared to her. In her diary she recorded the vision:
“Paint an image
according to the pattern you see, with the signature: ‘Jesus, I trust in You.’
I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then
throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image
will not perish.”
In
another visitation, he asked the nun that she help establish Divine Mercy
Sunday on the first Sunday after Easter, to offer the world salvation.
Faustina
recorded Jesus’ words:
“This Feast
emerged from the very depths of My mercy, and it is confirmed in the vast
depths of my tender mercies. Every soul believing and trusting in My mercy will
obtain it.”
It
was the mission that Pope John Paul II also felt called to help complete.
If
St. Faustina was the initial receptacle for the message of Divine Mercy, her
Polish compatriot saw to it that the requests Jesus made of the nun were
fulfilled, and the devotion spread throughout the world.
As
a young seminarian in Krakow in 1940, Karol Wojtyla first learned of St.
Faustina’s revelations and the message of Divine Mercy. Later as a priest, he
was a frequent visitor to the convent where Faustina lived, stopping by to
pray, and hold retreats. When he became Archbishop of Krakow, he led the effort
to put Faustina’s name before the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and
defended her when the validity of her claims was questioned in Rome.
As
pope, he published his second encyclical, Dives in misericordia (Rich
in mercy), on Nov. 30, 1980.
The
following year, while recovering from an assassination attempt, Pope John Paul
II traveled to The Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Italy, where he
revealed that he felt spreading the message of Divine mercy to be his greatest
calling.
“Right
from the beginning of my ministry in St. Peter's See in Rome, I considered this
message my special task. Providence has assigned it to me in the present
situation of man, the Church, and the world. It could be said that precisely
this situation assigned that message to me as my task before God,” he said.
At
the beatification of Saint Faustina on April 18, 1993, the pope spoke of his
delight at witnessing the popularity of the devotion to Divine Mercy.
“Her
mission continues and is yielding astonishing fruit. It is truly marvelous how
her devotion to the merciful Jesus is spreading in our contemporary world and
gaining so many human hearts!” said the pope.
Yet
there was more to be done. On Divine Mercy Sunday, April 30, 2000, Pope John
Paul II canonized Saint Faustina Kowalska, and declared the Second Sunday of
Easter as "Divine Mercy Sunday.”
Twenty
years ago today, when Pope John Paul II entrusted the world to Divine Mercy, he
shared his hope that the world would hear the message that God is merciful.
Quoting from Faustina's diary, he said:
“May
this message radiate from this place to our beloved homeland and throughout the
world. May the binding promise of the Lord Jesus be fulfilled: from here there
must go forth ‘the spark which will prepare the world for his final coming (cf.
Diary, 1732)’.”
“This
spark needs to be lighted by the grace of God. This fire of mercy needs to be
passed on to the world. In the mercy of God the world will find peace and
mankind will find happiness! I entrust this task to you, dear Brothers and
Sisters, to the Church in Kraków and Poland, and to all the votaries of Divine
Mercy who will come here from Poland and from throughout the world. May you be
witnesses to mercy!” he said.
Today,
devotion to Divine Mercy is popular among Catholics around the world. Churches
and shrines and religious orders have dedicated themselves to sharing the
message received by St. Faustina and which St. Pope John Paul II considered his
“task before God."
To
learn more about the Divine Mercy devotion, visit the website
for the Divine Mercy shrine in Poland or the National
Divine Mercy Shrine
in Stockton, Massachusetts.
Tuesday in the Second
Week of Lent[3]
Jesus’
condemnation of religious externalism, hypocrisy and vanity is not meant to
correct only the Pharisees of his time. It is also directed at us. We should
look into our Lenten practices of piety and works of charity and see whether
they are tainted with hypocrisy. During the celebration that follows, Christ,
the servant of Yahweh, will increase in us the spirit of human service.
The
“phylacteries” mentioned in the gospel were bands of parchment enclosed in
small boxes worn on the forehead and left fore-arm where they were fixed by
straps. On these bands were inscribed the most important texts of the Law. The
“fringes” were the tassels which the Law required to be worn at the four
corners of the cloak. By wearing broad phylacteries and long tassels the
Pharisees intended to show clearly their fidelity to the Law. —St. Andrew
Missal
Prayer.
GRANT, we
beseech Thee, O Almighty God, that Thy family, who, afflicting their flesh,
abstain from food, by following justice may fast from sin.
EPISTLE.
Daniel ix. 15-19.
In those days Daniel prayed unto
the Lord, saying: O Lord our God, Who hast brought forth Thy people out of the
land of Egypt with a strong hand, and hast made Thee a name as at this day: we
have sinned, we have committed iniquity, Lord, against all Thy justice: let Thy
wrath and Thy indignation be turned away, I beseech Thee, from Thy city
Jerusalem, and from Thy holy mountain. For by reason of our sins, and the
iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem, and Thy people are a reproach to all that
are round about us. Now, therefore, O our God, hear the supplication of Thy
servant, and his prayers: and show Thy face upon Thy sanctuary which is
desolate, for Thy own sake. Incline, O my God, Thy ear and hear: open Thy eyes,
and see our desolation, and the city upon which Thy name is called: for it is
not for our justifications that we present our prayers before Thy face, but for
the multitude of Thy tender mercies. O Lord hear: O Lord, be appeased: hearken
and do: delay not for Thy own sake, O my God: because Thy name is invoked upon
Thy city, and upon Thy people.
GOSPEL.
John viii. 21-29.
At
that time Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews: I go, and you shall seek Me,
and you shall die in your sin. Whither I go, you cannot come. The Jews
therefore said: Will He kill Himself, because He said: Whither I go, you cannot
come? And He said to them: You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of
this world; I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you, that you shall
die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your
sin. They said therefore to Him: Who art Thou? Jesus said to them: The
beginning, Who also speak unto you. Many things I have to speak and to judge of
you. But He that sent Me is true: and the things I have heard of Him, these
same I speak in the world. And they understood not that He called God His Father.
Jesus therefore said to them: When you shall have lifted up the Son of man,
then shall you know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as the
Father hath taught Me, these things I speak: and He that sent Me is with Me,
and He hath not left Me alone: for I do always the things that please Him.
St. Joseph-Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Joseph
These words were spoken to Sister on the eve of St. Joseph’s
feast day, March 18, 1958:
·
My
child, I desire a day to be set aside to honor my fatherhood.
·
The
privilege of being chosen by God to be the Virgin-Father of His Son was mine
alone, and no honor, excluding that bestowed upon my Holy Spouse, was ever, or
will ever, be as sublime or as high as this.
·
The Holy
Trinity desires thus to honor me that in my unique fatherhood all fatherhood
might be blessed.
·
Dear
child, I was king in the little home of Nazareth, for I sheltered within it the
Prince of Peace and the Queen of Heaven. To me they looked for protection and
sustenance, and I did not fail them.
·
I
received from them the deepest love and reverence, for in me they saw Him Whose
place I took over them.
·
So, the
head of the family must be loved, obeyed, and respected, and in return be a
true father and protector to those under his care.
·
In
honoring in a special way my fatherhood, you also honor Jesus and Mary. The
Divine Trinity has placed into our keeping the peace of the world.
· The imitation of the Holy Family, my child, of the virtues we practiced in our little home at Nazareth is the way for all souls to that peace which comes from God alone and which none other can give.
St. Joseph appeared to Sister again to explain the First
Wednesday devotion God wishes to establish in his honor. Sister states:
His requests were similar to those of Our Lady and the First
Saturday. The Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph have been chosen by the
Most Holy Trinity to bring peace to the world; hence, their request for special
love and honor, also, in particular, reparation and imitation.
These are the words of St. Joseph as recorded on March
30, 1958:
“I am the protector of the Church and the home, as I was the
protector of Christ and His Mother while I lived upon earth. Jesus and Mary
desire that my pure heart, so long hidden and unknown, be now honored in a
special way.
1.
Let my children honor my most pure heart in a special
manner on the First Wednesday of the month by reciting the Joyful Mysteries
of the rosary in memory of my life with Jesus and Mary and the love I bore
them, the sorrow I suffered with them.
2.
Let them receive Holy Communion in union with the love
with which I received the Savior for the first time and each time I held Him in
my arms.
Those who honor me in this way will be consoled by my
presence at their death, and I myself will conduct them safely into the
presence of Jesus and Mary.
I will come again, little child of my most pure heart. Until
then, continue in patience and humility, which is so pleasing to God.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Day
275 2110-2117
PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION TWO-THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
CHAPTER
ONE-YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR
SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND
Article 1-THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me"
2110 The first
commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed
himself to his people. It proscribes superstition and irreligion. Superstition
in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion; irreligion is the vice
contrary by defect to the virtue of religion.
Superstition
2111
Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this
feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g.,
when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices
otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of
sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior
dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.
Idolatry
2112 The first
commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to
venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls
this rejection of "idols, (of) silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty
idols make their worshippers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so
are all who trust in them." God, however, is the "living
God" who gives life and intervenes in history.
2113 Idolatry
not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to
faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry
whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods
or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state,
money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon." Many
martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast" refusing even to
simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is
therefore incompatible with communion with God.
2114 Human
life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. the commandment to
worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless
disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense. An
idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to
anything other than God."
Divination and magic
2115 God can
reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian
attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence
for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about
it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.
2116 All
forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring
up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the
future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of
omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all
conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other
human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict
the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
2117 All
practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so
as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others -
even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary
to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when
accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to
the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism
often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns
the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not
justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's
credulity.
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Conversion
of Sinners
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face
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